Rhod Gilbert
Carmarthen, Wales |regular # = 3 |clip # = 3 |christmas # = 1 }} Rhodri "Rhod" Gilbert is a Welsh comedian who was nominated in 2005 for the Perrier Best Newcomer Award. In 2008, he was nominated for the main if.comedy (as the Edinburgh Comedy Awards were then branded). He appears on television and radio panel shows, has performed stand-up on the Royal Variety Performance, and hosts a weekly show on BBC Radio Wales. Early life Gilbert was born in Carmarthen, Wales in 1968 and studied languages at Exeter University. For the first three weeks, such was his painful shyness that Gilbert was unable to eat with other students in the canteen or even make friends with the student in the next room. After graduating Gilbert travelled for a year and a half around Australia and Asia before returning to Carmarthen and working as an admin assistant for the Welsh Office. After this he worked as a qualitative researcher for a number of different market research agencies in London. Career Stand-up comedy Gilbert got into professional comedy in 2002, after taking a comedy workshop course, but only "thanks to a girlfriend’s constant nagging". Within 18 months, Gilbert had already won several different talent competitions. and was nominated for the Perrier Newcomer award for his first solo show in 2005 at Edinburgh Fringe entitled 1984. He has since performed worldwide. Many of Gilbert's stories are based around real life events, and his life in the wholly fictionalised village of Llanbobl. Originally invented to ensure an English heckler had nothing real to grasp on to, it has since been geographically defined as being situated between "Wrexham and Holyhead, just north of Newtown, Powys," and a sort of "grown-up Thomas the Tank Engine" location. Gilbert has described the number of audience members that come up to him at the end of shows, and say they have been to Llanbobl for holidays, and even that an English rugby union team "hammered" the Llanbobl team. Gilbert also admitted that he "may have 'accidentally' sent the rugby player that told him on a 7 hour goose-chase" to come back to Llanbobl and meet him. In 2008, Gilbert wrote a sitcom around life in Llanbobl, which featured on BBC Radio 2. In his 2006 Edinburgh Fringe show Knocking on Heaven's Door, Gilbert told stories from his life, weighing up whether he would be admitted to heaven. His 2007 show, Who's Eaten Gilbert's Grape? saw Gilbert return to Llanbobl and pick up the story following the 1984 show narrative. His 2008 show, Rhod Gilbert and the Award-Winning Mince Pie, saw Gilbert question his sanity, his career and his life after suffering a mental breakdown brought on by the award-winning mince pie at a motorway services. On 17 December 2008 he appeared at the 80th Royal Variety Performance. Gilbert's 2009/10 show, entitled Rhod Gilbert And The Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst, was announced on 5 April. Titled so that it would stop an obsessive fan in Kent, ironically named Alex Gilbert (no relation), bringing him presents. The show previewed around the UK in small venues, before being performed at the Edinburgh Festival. The show toured UK theatres from September 2009. On 18–19 June 2009, Gilbert made the last performances of Rhod Gilbert And The Award-Winning Mince Pie show at the Bloomsbury Theatre, which was recorded and released as a DVD on 16 November 2009. The DVD also contains several special features, including his infamous rant about lost luggage, outtakes from the performance and a mockumentary called Back To Llanbobl in which Gilbert shows the viewer around his fictional home town. From September 2009 to April 2010 he toured the UK with a new show titled Rhod Gilbert and the Cat that Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst; the tour included dates at many prestigious theatres such as London's HMV Hammersmith Apollo. A DVD of the tour is due for release on 22 November 2010. List of appearances *Series 4, Episode 5 ''*Series 4, Episode 6 '' *''Series 5, Episode 3 '' *''Series 5, Episode 12 '' *''Series 7, Episode 2 '' *''Series 7, Episode 7 '' *''Series 7, Episode 13 '' Television Gilbert has appeared several times on the BBC2 shows ''Mock The Week'' , and Never Mind the Buzzcocks, even presenting one show in the programme's 23rd series, which aired in October 2009. He has also appeared as a guest on Channel 4's 8 Out of Ten Cats, and has used his comedy talents to write and narrate BBC Three's 2007 Goals Galore, Pranks Galore, Football Gaffes Galore and TV Gaffes Galore programmes. He has also presented BBC 2W's, Rhod Gilbert's Teen Tribes, providing an insight into the teen tribal worlds of "Emos", "Chavs" and "Goths". Gilbert was Paramount Comedy's continuity writer and announcer between September 2005 and April 2006, providing end-credit voice-overs for their peaktime programme schedule. In December 2008 Gilbert was signed for an advertising campaign to further promote tourism in Wales and became the official Voice Of Wales for the country's tourist-board, fronting the 2009 Visit Wales television advertising. Gilbert has done reports for the BBC One current affairs/ human interest show 'The One Show'. In November 2008, Gilbert appeared on the BBC's Live at the Apollo as a guest. In December 2009, he hosted the show, introducing fellow comedian John Bishop. On 6 June 2009 Gilbert appeared as the headline act on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow on BBC One, and he guested on 8 out of 10 Cats on 17 July 2009. He also provided voiceover material for the sketch show Walk on the Wild Side. On 19 January 2010, Rhod Gilbert's Work Experience aired on BBC One Wales. The four part series saw Gilbert attempt a number of jobs including hairdresser, refuse collector, soldier and parent. Following the show's success on BBC One Wales, the series will air nationally on BBC2 from 10 March. Rhod will be producing a documentary on Welsh comedy for BBC Wales in the new year. Radio In 2006, he hosted the BBC Radio Wales comedy panel show Jest a Minute, live from The Comedy Store in London. The second series of Jest a Minute was recorded in late 2008 in Cardiff's Glee Club, hosted by Gilbert and featuring regular team captains Chris Corcoran and Lloyd Langford, and guests from the comedy circuit such as Professor Greg Davies, Lucy Porter and Jon Richardson. Gilbert was also the host of BBC Radio 4's 4 Stands Up comedy series which aired in the Autumn of 2008, and has also appeared twice on Radio Four's Just a Minute, Radio 2's Does the Team Think?, and BBC Radio 4s Act your Age. In December 2008, a pilot of his sitcom, Rhod Gilbert's Leaving Llanbobl was broadcast on BBC Radio Two; the sitcom was written and starred Rhod Gilbert and Greg Davies, with additional writing by Sian Harries. Lloyd Langford played Gilbert's amiable younger brother Emrys, Di Botcher played Brenda, a gossipy hairdresser, and Mike Hayward played Gilbert's father Gurnos. The show was produced by Ed Morrish. He has hinted in interviews that the sitcom is likely to move to TV when it is completed as he found that he was "seeing it" as he wrote it. Rhod has also made several appearances on the BBC Radio 4 comedy program The Unbelievable Truth. Gilbert currently fronts his own radio show "The Rhod Gilbert Radio Show", broadcast by BBC Radio Wales on Saturdays between 11am and 1pm, alongside fellow Welsh stand-up comedian Chris Corcoran. In real life they also share a house. Awards ;2002 * Finalist in So You Think You're Funny. ;2003 * Winner of the Leicester Mercury comedian of the year as part of the Leicester Comedy Festival * Winner of the Paramount Gift Of The Gag competition * Chortle Award nominee for best new act * Winner of the BBC New Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe * Runner-up in the Hackney Empire New Act of The Year competition * Winner of the Metro and Jongleurs Spike Award for New Talent, South East * Winner of the National Talent Hunt at the York Festival ;2005 * Chortle award for Best Breakthrough Act * Nominated for The List and Writers Guild Comedy Award for "Rhod Gilbert's 1984" * Perrier nominated for Best Newcomer for "Rhod Gilbert's 1984." ;2006 * Placed in The Times Top 50 comedians * Named one of The Rough Guide to British Cult Comedy's top 50 icons. ;2008 *Nominated for the main IF.COM Eddies (formerly Perrier award) at the Edinburgh fringe for "Rhod Gilbert and the Award-winning Mince Pie" *Winner of the Time Out 'Comic of the Year' *Winner of the Time Out 'Best Show of the Year' for "Rhod Gilbert and the Award-winning Mince Pie" *Winner of the Time Out 'Breakthrough Act' *Nominated for the Celtic Media awards 'Best Radio Personality' for the "Rhod Gilbert Radio Show" on BBC Radio Wales ;2009 * Nominated for the Times/South Bank Show Awards, 'Breakthrough Act' * Winner of Chortle award for 'Best Headliner' * Winner of "Comics Comic" Chortle award * Nominated for the Chortle award for Best Show for "Rhod Gilbert and the Award-winning Mince Pie" External links *Rhod Gilbert BBC radio show *Review and details of awards *Funny Money film shorts with Rhod Gilbert for BBC raw money *Llanbobl on Facebook *Rhod Gilbert Show on Twitter Category:Guests